NEWS | Wednesday, 14 January 2009

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Malta’s passenger transport increased by over 10% in 2007 over the previous year, surpassing the EU average of 7%.
Statistics released yesterday showed Malta had handled 2.9 million passengers, of which 2.6 million were EU passengers. Malta International Airport was busier than Sofia, Bratislava, Tallinn, Vilnius, Luxembourg City and Ljubljana according to figures released by Eurostat.
The total number of passengers transported by air in the EU27 rose by 7.3% in 2007 compared with 2006, to 793 million. In 2006, passenger numbers in the EU27 rose by 4.7%.
In 2007, the highest numbers of passengers were registered in the United Kingdom (217 million, +3%), Germany (164m, +6%), Spain (164m, +9%), France (120m, +6%) and Italy (106m, +11%).
The number of air passengers rose in 2007 in all EU Member States. Four Member States recorded growth of above 20% compared with 2006: Romania (+41%), Latvia (+27%), Poland (+25%) and Lithuania (+22%). The lowest growth rates were reported in Luxembourg (+2%), the United Kingdom (+3%), the Netherlands, Hungary and Cyprus (all +4%).
Of the total number of passengers transported by air, 22% (176m) were carried on national flights, 44% (346m) on intra-EU27 flights and 34% (271m) on extra-EU27 flights.
London/Heathrow is still the EU’s busiest passenger airport, with 68 million passengers handled in 2007, up by 1% compared with 2006. Paris/Charles de Gaulle (60m, +6%) and Frankfurt/Main (54m, +3%) were the second and third busiest airports, followed by Madrid/Barajas (51m, +14%), which in 2007 overtook Amsterdam/Schiphol (48m, +4%).
The busiest intra-EU27 routes were London Heathrow to Dublin (2.0 mn, -1%), London Heathrow to Amsterdam/Schiphol (1.8 mn, -3%) and London Heathrow to Paris/Charles de Gaulle (1.8 mn, -9%).
The busiest extra-EU27 routes were London Heathrow to New York/JFK (2.8m, +3%), Paris/Charles de Gaulle to New York/JFK (1.7 mn, +4%), London Heathrow to Chicago/O’Hare (1.6 mn, +6%), London Heathrow to Dubai International (1.6m, +14%) and London Heathrow to Hong Kong International (1.5m, +3%).

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